The Pilot & His Deputy
by PetraS
Summary: Nick Rye uses the blue skies to contemplate his growing feelings for a certain woman. Nick Rye/Female Deputy. A one shot that may progress into a few more parts.
1. Chapter 1

He didn't even know it happened till it _happened_. Nicholas Rye, current owner of Rye & Sons Aviation and with a heavily pregnant wife at home had fallen in love with another woman. He couldn't look at himself in the mirror - hell he avoided his own wife and stuck to flying all the time. It disgusted him - how on Earth could he have started to notice the same things in another woman which he had once noticed in Kim? Kim . . . his lovely wife - ever so faithful and supportive and far more courageous than him - how could he have betrayed her?

For so long he looked for reasons for his odd behaviour. Why did he crave _her_ company next to racing home to meet his wife? He wondered if Kim had changed or if things around him had - well, heck they had. John Seed had destroyed his life, taken his plane and bombed down his house on multiple occasions. He would sometimes stay up at night guarding his wife as she slept swearing to God that he would hightail them out of this place once he had his plane back. But Kim was not a coward like him. She would stay and so would he. She was still the same and had not changed. He had.

When John Seed whispered in his ear the first seed of doubt, he had changed. _That child . . . it is mine. I took your wife then and I can take her now._ The agony in his chest and worry for Kim had forced the words from his lips. Yes, yes I will atone. The pain that came afterwards was a blur - his skin with the word GREED tattooed on was stapled to the wall like a certificate of achievement for John Seed. He thought of nothing then, but to rush home to Kim and beg her to be honest. She confirmed the story - the child was John's.

It wasn't her fault and he knew that. He understood that and yet, a part of him couldn't. John Seed had destroyed his life and had taken away the one thing that had kept him going. He told Kim nothing would change, but then suddenly everything did. He fell in love with another woman. The Deputy.

He still remembered the first time he had laid eyes on the famous deputy - peggie hunter. She had come rushing in, her brown hair in a disarray and a wound on her pale cheek with Grace Armstrong hot on her heels. He had been immensely disappointed - a woman of her stature could not be the one he kept hearing about from Dutch or Pastor Jerome. But then she had easily gunned down all the peggies - taking bullets to protect his airfield and awe had sprung within him. It still wasn't enough to make him fall in love with her.

She had brought his plane back from the lion's den itself. It still wasn't enough to make him fall in love with her.

She had defended his wife with her own life, taking bullet scratches left and right. He still didn't look at her any differently.

But then after liberating Holland Valley, she stood there injured with a poorly woman wrapped around her shoulder. She shook hands with Mary May, Pastor Jerome Jeffries, Grace Armstrong, Kim and then she had reached him. Punching into her small walkie talkie, she wrote him a message that her tongue could not convey. _Stay strong, Nick. Kim loves you and so does the baby. It takes more than an act of conception to be a father._ And then she had smiled, a small dimple darkening her cheek and her hazel eyes shining in the sun. He felt his worries fly out the window at her words and almost packed up to follow her into the Henbane River.

And just like that she was gone - leaving behind a powerful advice that kept him by Kim's side. The intimacy between them rapidly decreased - he still tended to her other physical needs, but she had understood that he desired space. And on a day like this when he was flying up in the air, he realised he had crossed into the Henbane River again hoping to catch a quick glimpse of the deputy and then fly back home. It was so wrong, but he was desperate at this point.

He spotted her fighting a bunch of peggies at Joseph Seed's statue. He watched as she was shot in the shoulder and went ploughing down on the ground, her parachute just about saving her from a crash landing. He saw her roll down the hill and then fly into bushes to avoid the reinforcements on her tail. His heart stopped and he was firing aggressively with his machine gun - rage blinding him more than the sharp sunlight. He saw bodies fall and then a small figure emerge from the bushes looking bemused. She spotted his plane and a blinding smile lit up on her face. His heart stopped for the second time.

When he landed, he didn't care if she thought he was too eager, but he had rushed at her quicker than the cougar that was circling her worriedly. He could already see her punching digits into her walkie talkie, but it was unnecessary. She was in his arms in the next second and he heard her breath hitch. The awkward silence lapsed on for a single minute, before she relaxed and encircled her strong arms around his back. He had sweated like a pig from worry for her, but she was bloody all over. Fury nearly engulfed him and he was so ready to follow her to the showdown, but she was stepping back and waving her device in his face.

 _Is everything okay, Nick? Why are you here? Is Kim and the baby okay?_

He felt bile choking his air supply and shame freeze his heart. She was more worried for his wife than he was. "Deputy, yes, everything is fucking fine."

She frowned and typed another message. He wondered how she could read him so easily, yet Kim sometimes could not. _What's wrong, Nick? You are not okay._

Anger engulfed him then. _She_ was the one who was not okay and here she was worrying about the rest of the world, but herself. "You are bleeding all over the fucking ground with a cougar two steps away from you, Dep! I think we shouldn't worry about anything else right now."

The deputy smiled at his words, stroking long fingers on the cougar's head as it growled up at him. _This is Peaches. She is a pet - she won't hurt me, Nick._ He imagined her running her fingers down his hair and without knowing, he had grabbed her cold hand in his own. Brown eyes met his own with confusion and worry - she probably thought he had gone crazy. Resisting the urge to pull her back in his arms, he led her to his devoted plane watching as the cougar followed like a bodyguard.

"We're takin' you to a medic, Dep. The cougar needs to find her own way."

Her shoulders shook, the dimples ever so prominent now on her cheeks as she typed a quick message again. _Silly! Peaches likes to run - she will be there before you and I._

In the air, he flew around looking for a medic watching as the deputy struggled to stop leaning on his shoulder. And then finally, her head hit his arm with a soft thud and she fell in a deep slumber. He allowed himself to observe her then - long brown eyelashes, high arched eyebrows and a small mouth. His eyes lingered on it far too long before he realised he had landed. Virgil Minkler, the mayor was opening the door to her side of the plane and sending him a friendly greeting.

Instead of following them inside, he accelerated and flew out of Henbane River. He had only wanted to see her for a second, but today he had gotten more than he had wished. That night, Kim noticed his relaxed mood and dared to ask him why. He was honest.

 _I saw the deputy today._

 _Oh._ It was all she said before she retired to bed. He wondered if she understood now. He wondered if she would forgive him. But lastly, he wondered where they were going - He, Kim and the baby - a picture perfect family in which the father was not the true father and had fallen out of love with the mother.


	2. Chapter 2

Nick Rye wondered when the last time was when someone had asked the Deputy how she was faring. Certainly, when she had rescued his plane and protected his airfield and home, he had not bothered to ask her for her wellbeing. At the time all that mattered to him was getting the hell out of Hope County with his pregnant wife. He wondered if Kim sometimes regretted asking them to stay. Maybe that way their relationship would not be coming to an end as it was now.

Contrary to everyone else's predictions, it had been Kim who had parted ways with him. Everyone in Fall's End had known that this inevitable event was due to happen but never had they expected any of them to make the decision so soon. Especially not Kim. They had all looked to him - expecting him to shirk his fatherly duties and abandon his once beloved wife and another man's child. Yet, he had stayed and tried. He tried to love the child as his own and rekindle his relationship with Kim.

Evidently, for her, it was not enough. _I can't do it anymore, Nick! You look at me as if I am a stranger and maybe, just maybe we have become strangers._

With those final words, she had left for Fall's End with the babe. Over the course of the weekend, he received many visitors. Mary May Fairgrave had turned up in her Father's Widowmaker - the sound so loud he had heard it meters away. She had not been sympathetic - blaming him for their downfall. _Nick, what difference did it make? It was still your child!_ That was the mantra he would repeat to himself day and night, and eventually, he had believed it too. It was Kim who had not.

Pastor Jerome arrived next. He had read some verses from the Bible. The birth of Jesus and Mary's trials during her pregnancy. He wondered if Kim too had related to the biblical character - had she also not wanted the child? Had she kept it for his sake in hopes of salvaging their crumbling relationship? Or had she truly come to love the babe as he had? Nick wasn't sure anymore.

Finally, it was the Deputy - in tow with her beloved murdering cat. He spotted her arriving in the most unconventional way - through the thick foliage of the tree, she was parachuting into his airfield. Despite the grief that had surrounded him in the past week, he could not stop the smile that touched his lips when she was hurriedly typing into her device while simultaneously struggling with the heavy parachute.

"Deputy." He greeted, taking note of her more than usual pale skin and small cuts everywhere on her person. He had no doubt that she had encountered peggies between the journey from Henbane River and here, but enormous affection grew in his heart that she had considered him important enough to make the trip. He had been receiving radio messages from everyone across Hope County so he had been somewhat forlorn that the Deputy had not made the call.

 _Nick! What happened?_ Relief surrounded his entire chest. No one had actually asked him what had gone down between Kim and him - only they had thrown accusations or sympathetic sermons that were always in favor of his wife. He didn't know how awful he would feel if the Deputy was to do that too.

"Kim left." He stated simply, staring at Carmina and musing at the fact that he would have called his daughter that too. Except they had a son - something he had always wanted, yet . . .

She _wrote_ no more. In the distance he could hear trucks blowing up, silos going poof and releasing a sickening green gas. Yet, for once he was glad of the silence that came with the Deputy. Not just the lack of her voice, but also of the words that he was sick of hearing. He no longer wanted sad glances from everyone in Fall's End or the long heartfelt radio messages reminding him that they were the best couple in Hope County. Those were days gone.

It was her walkie talkie that broke the silence. "Rookie! Rookie, you there?" The frantic voice of the Sheriff changed the forlorn mood to anxious. She knocked on the device and they heard a relieved sigh on the other end.

"Praise the Lord!" He continued. "I thought we lost you there. You went crazy after waking up from the Bliss - I was so worried for you."

His head shot up to stare at her in disbelief. The Bliss? She had been in the Bliss? An image of a deranged Angel came to mind and his heartbeat sped up when he began to connect the dots. Many Angels - some of them his friends, had also become pale and weak during the initial period of the Bliss. The Deputy had certainly lost weight and he could look at her from every angle and still come to the conclusion that she was unnaturally pale.

Her eyes were distant even as the Sheriff spoke on. "It was stupid of you to leave like that! You were in no condition to travel - even Tracey has been worried sick for you." Fury overtook concern. She had risked her life to come here and check upon him. Him? The pathetic man who still could not come to terms with his wife's bed of lies.

She turned her face away uncomfortably as he shot her glares. Besides her, the cougar grew hostile at his emerging negativity towards her companion and growled in warning towards him. He doubted anything could tame the turbulence that rippled through him - the Deputy had a knack for making him love her and despise her at the same time all together. Each time though, it was the affection that won the battle no matter how hard he tried.

"Deputy." He attempted to sound as grave as he could, but the state of her only made him grieve for her. She was strong - the strongest he had seen her the first time he had laid eyes on her. Even then, he did not think she was the infamous Deputy giving the Seed family grief. Now - now he barely recognized that Deputy from before. "You did not have to come." He meant what he said now. He wished she had not come.

She pressed buttons less assuredly. _I did. You are my friend._

"Your health comes first, Deputy!" When she shrunk away from him shocked, he realized he was screaming. The cougar growled loudly now, encircling the woman protectively. He did not care - he had his fixed on the girl. "You didn't have to come! It makes little difference to me anyway!" It had made all the difference in the world to him, but the lie had slipped out in his blind rage. Brief hurt flashed across her face just before she seized hold of the cougar's tail from making the lunge on him.

Then she typed furiously in her walkie talkie, holding it up for just a few seconds before she was walking away. _I see. Goodbye, Nick._

Goodbye Nick? He hated the finality that shone on her face. As if it would be the last time she would be saying those words to him. Seeing her walking away and disappearing into the foliage took something of him with her. The fear and anguish at her cold goodbye were insurmountable; something he had not felt on Kim's departure. It was this realization and the disgust that came with it that made him stay rooted to the ground. The last remaining part of her disappeared in the greenery and with it the last of his peace too.

* * *

Two months had passed and he had only a radio connection that allowed him to keep tabs on her whereabouts. He had heard Virgil Minkler's joy when she had destroyed the crates of the bliss that had been pumped into their water supply. Tracey's joyful whoops as the giant Joseph Seed statue had fallen to its knees. He had also heard the warnings - the threats that always followed with silence. The Deputy would disappear off the radar for a few days and oftentimes, he would take it upon himself to go searching for her.

This time again he had taken to the skies overlooking the Henbane River region. This time it had been too long - too long since she had last contacted the Sheriff who had sent five dispatch parties after her, too long since she had called Pastor Jerome and asked if everything in Holland Valley was well. Too long since they had spoken. And he only had himself to blame for this - he had been an ass even though she had come in her weakened state to visit him. The realization had come too late - so late that even when he had tried to find her, she remained hidden from his eyes.

"Any luck?" He heard the woman named Tracey ask. "Fuck! What if this time they really got her?" He would not consider it. He could not imagine it. They needed the Deputy because she was their savior and at many times he owed his life to her too. Now she was more - she was not just here to save Hope County - she was here to save his world. The Deputy . . . had become the centerpiece of his world. He had lost Kim to John - he would not lose the Deputy to Faith.

"Shut it, Tracey!" One of the resistance members replied. "You remember who she was with? We can contact them and ask? Maybe Sharky?"

Tracey chuckled grimly. "Nah, Sharky is with his thot aunt!" Behind her, he heard Virgil rebuke her for mocking Adelaide Drubman. "I think that cougar was the only one hovering around Dep! Any of you a cat whisperer?"

He severed the connection then having had quite enough of their lightheartedness. Did they even care past the point that she was setting things straight for them? Would anyone even care about her wellbeing if she was to one day stop serving them? Perhaps Joseph was right - they were weak and the Deputy was the only one with conviction to destroy everything the Peggies had built. They were nothing without her - he was nothing without her.

A flash caught his eye - the speedy brown in the foliage of the green trees. He stalked it hoping, praying that it was the damn cat. And indeed it was - she was encircling a still figure, clearly agitated and he was flying down with Carmina. _Please, please, be alright._

The cougar spotted him first through her strange eyes and was already at the door of his plane before he had even opened it. She was not hostile this time when she plunged her jaw gently into the hem of his pant leg and tugged towards the girl. He repeated the mantra again and again reassuring himself more than actually believing it. She could not be dead. No - he had much to tell her, much to apologize for and. . . much to confess.

The rise and fall of her chest were not enough to ease the worry from his heart completely, but it definitely spurred him out of his zombie still state. "Deputy!" He slapped her cheek, finding it cold. If this were the Whitetail Mountains, he would have not cared much that she was ice cold. However, Henbane seldom got cold.

"Hey, wake up, Dep." This time he shook her shoulder and her eyes flew open. He didn't know what made him leap off her first - the wild loony look in her eyes or the knife that she sought to drive in his arm. "Deputy?" He asked shocked when she let out a feral grunt and made a second attempt - this time towards his heart. Behind her, the cougar looked confused at her actions but was intelligent enough to latch on to the unstable girl before she did the damage.

And just like that, she was crumbling to the ground, her hands making fists in her hair as she heaved herself back into reality. They had done it. They had truly broken her, Nick thought, fighting down the lump that rose in his throat. He had promised to never cry after his father had passed. But many things had made him emotional - frustration when Nick stole Carmina and joy when Kim had announced her pregnancy.

This was different - he had an urge to break down with her. He wanted to pack her up in his plane and forever fly out of Hope County. His once beloved homeland had become a cause of misery for him and those he loved. Fuck the peggies and fuck the resistance. They could all fight their own battles - why should she have to?

 _Why are you here, Nick?_ This time it was she who was hostile - the clarity in her eyes mixed with something dark. The remnants of the fucking Bliss . . .

"I - I have been searching for you, Dep!" He muttered, touching her slack shoulder. It grew stiff under his touch before she was pulling away and rising to her feet unsteadily. With eagle eyes, he watched as she typed a message into her walkie talkie.

"WHOOP!" Tracey's cheer echoed in the walled forest. "Hey, Sheriff, Virgil! The Deputy is alive!"

The Deputy clearly did not share her enthusiasm - her face so blank that she reminded him of a renaissance painting. "Alright, listen up, Dep! We wasted a lot of time searching for you! Make sure to destroy the last of the shrines around Henbane. That will give a real blow to that crazy bitch! Over and out!"

Was that it? To say he was stunned would be an understatement, but he had a limited collection of vocabulary for school had never been his thing. He had been expecting his fellow Resistance members to show some concern for the woman's wellbeing, but instead, they had only reminded her that she had wasted their time? Disgust rolled in his stomach and he was stalking back to Carmina - itching to get his hands on his own walkie talkie.

"Nick Rye, here." He ground out, biting his tongue fiercely to stop the flood of obscenities that threatened to roll off his tongue. The Deputy was watching him from the distance away, moving to walk off but something in his eyes halted her.

"Who?" The same woman, Tracey asked. "Oh wait - you the pilot from Fall's End, right? Everything cool?"

"No, it damn right isn't cool." At his words, he watched the Deputy's eyes go large. She probably thought he had gone insane and just like her, maybe he had lost a part of sanity because of the blasé attitude of the Resistance members. Had they lost all their humanity that now it was all about how much damage they could give to the Peggies? What had happened to caring for each other?

"What's your problem, man?" There was an edge to her tone, one that reminded him of Mary May Fairgrave. "We have enough shit happening here as it is. Y'all are fine and cool there in Holland Valley now that your ends have been fixed. We-!"

"We ain't fine and cool anywhere till all the peggies are six feet under the ground." This time he was yelling too and the Deputy was approaching with shimmering anxiety. "But that still doesn't mean y'all sit back on your asses and send out one man for every job. The fuck have you done except hide in that crumbling heap of a jail?"

Carmina's door was swinging open and the Deputy was grabbing his arm with a grave look. When she thrust her walkie talkie in his face, he turned away petulantly. He was going to say what was on his mind - what had been on his mind from the start. "The Deputy isn't your fucking slave! She has just gone through hell and all you care about are the damn fucking shrines. Maybe get off your high horse and ask her how she is doing next time!"

He chucked the device hard ignoring the constant beeps it resounded. Now he was going to get an earful from Pastor Jerome and Mary May again. Maybe Grace would have something to say too for once. Sharky would probably laugh his ass off and Adelaide would tell him to _get some anger management classes, honey_. He was sick of it - of all of it.

But what he had not expected was the Deputy tugging him out of the plane and engulfing him in a tight embrace. It had been too damn long since someone had hugged him - someone, whom he had wanted to hug. But he did not know the effect of her closeness would be so overwhelming for him. His knees were shaking - a cold sweat was sending shivers through his body and his heart - he could say a few things about his heart, but only one prevalent emotion had overtaken it. Love.

The feelings he had tried to suppress had rekindled. In fact, he had failed at removing them from his heart in the first place. He had thought maybe spending time with the baby would make him love Kim again and forget the irrational emergence of emotions for this woman, but damn it all to hell he had been wrong. And he hated being wrong, yet even that was giving him delight.

Before she could pull away, he was returning her embrace more fiercely than he had ever done. Her shaky breath hitched and he knew then that she was crying. The wetness on his neck only confirmed that.

"Dep, I am kind of - no, I am very sorry for being an ass to you when you - when you came to check up on me." Making apologies was never his strong point, but he was not feeling the after-effects of sappiness that usually followed after forgiveness. "You have to know that I - I honestly never meant those words. You being there mattered. It matters to me."

She was laughing now so he allowed her to pull away from him. The emptiness and the cold that followed almost made him pull her back, but the cougar was already stepping between them - not enjoying the attention she had bestowed upon him.

It took him a few seconds to remove his eyes from her dimples and read the message on her device. _You were an ass, Nick. But it was nice of you to check up on me too._ Then her eyes moved to the small cut that she had made in his arm in her blind instability. Her fingers soon followed, stroking the slight wound with regret practically dripping from her person. _I did this. I am sorry, Nick._

"Nah! Don't worry about it, Dep!" He said, waving his hand away in pretense. The truth was he was very concerned. The path she was upon was the same path that Lizzie, Edgar, and Harry had taken, and then they had become those fucking Angels. He had lost too many people to this drug - to lose her too was unacceptable. He would kill Faith with his bare hands before he let that happen.

"Deputy. Be honest with me and don't fucking lie because you wanna look strong." Her brown eyes met his through his shades and he sensed apprehension within them. "How far are you gone with this-with this fucking Bliss? How many times have you _taken_ it?"

Muddy brown eyes turned black at his words. _I HAVEN'T TAKEN IT, NICK! Never!_

What? Then how had she ended up in that state? He voiced his questions and then watched as she pointed to her knee. A cut indicated that she had taken an arrow and had removed it recently - probably when he was giving that woman a piece of his mind.

"They drug you? They fucking drug you, Deputy?" She sighed, shifting from leg to leg as she always did when she was nervous. Then she looked towards the opening as if planning to exit this discussion. Like hell, he would let her leave till she told him everything. "And then what? What happens when you - when _they_ drug you?"

 _I see her. And the Bliss world._

The next question was perhaps one that he felt the most frightened at asking. "And how . . . how do you feel? In her world - how does that make you feel, Deputy?"

Her hesitation at keying in the words said it all. And it only strengthened his decision. The decision to never let her out of his sights again.

 _I feel at peace, Nick._


End file.
